Pirate
by kitsunegal-chan
Summary: I could see only dim outlines through the dirty rag with which they had bound my eyes. I had heard them say that the blindness induced fear. It did not.


Okaaaay, seeing as I'm a bit out of practice I submit to you…a oneshot!

This was intended to be Elizabeth's first hand account, but it can be anyone's I imagine. Even still, the narrator is female ;)

Please enjoy,

k-chan

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Disclaimer: K-chan does not own anything, much less copyrights.

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Pirate.

That's what they called me, or rather spit at me, their muddled Old English accents curling around the word as if to suffocate it. The air reeked of the worst kind of humanity. Their shouting rang through the slow dawn. A cold smile began to form on my face, one side of my mouth curling up ever so slightly in spite of my situation.

Pirate.

I stumbled slightly, blindly grasping the rough hemp that bound my hands for balance. The cart moved slowly down the mud filled street, its occupants swaying this way and that as it maneuvered through the rowdy crowd surrounding it.

I could feel liquid dripping from my fingers. Warm liquid. The hemp was very rough.

I could see only dim outlines through the dirty rag with which they had bound my eyes. Its smell assaulted my senses as it clouded around my face. I had heard them say that the blindness induced fear.

It did not.

The cart came to a halt again, and the crowd's jeering intensified as a new set of feet stumbled onto the wooden plank that served as our carriage. I heard the man next to me whimpering softly, and my smile waned slightly. I hated these people, this crowd. They were killing all of us. The ones who new the ocean and loved the sea.

Pirates.

They had no right to make this man beside me cower in their presence. The knife in my boot screamed to be let out, its sharp blade slicing the skin on my ankle easily as the cart shifted onward once more. My fingers were wet. My boot was wet now too.

The roar of the crowd grew louder, and I knew where we had arrived. Even though I was blind to the world, the sense of the space around me widened. We were at the shore. The gallows awaited us. Being the sole lady of the group, I imagined that they would find it amusing to allow me to go first, but instead I was held for last.

I was blind, I was not deaf. When a neck breaks, when a life ends, you can hear it. One by one, lives ended before me. One by one, the rope was pulled taut.

The crowd yelled.

My fingers dripped.

The cart lightened as feet moved off, never to come back on. Finally, it was me they pulled from the cart. They pulled the hemp, jeering at me. I stumbled as wood met earth, and the cart fell back with the absence of my weight, of any weight. The large hands held my arms too tightly, my hands throbbed and my heartbeat deafened my ears.

I vaguely wondered how many more steps across the dusty earth I had left before all I had was wood and sky.

Then it was gone, the platform sounded hollow as I was marched across it. The crowd was in hysterics, a wench was to swing at last. My boot was wet and agitating as I was lined up in the center of the planking.

Something rough brushed against my cheek as it was swung in front of me. It scraped coarsely across my face and neck as it was secured and tightened. To me it seemed eager to do its job, already slowly cutting off my air.

I heard the footsteps of the lucky bastard who got to pull the lever, his feet falling with a heavy certainty as he made his way to his post. I licked my lips; they tasted of dust and salt. Through the filthy rag I could see light rising before me, the sunrise over the sea.

Suddenly it hit me, I was never going to see that water ever again, never feel it on my body, never sail across it in my ship. It was anguish, not terror, that made that rag across my eyes grow wet as well. This was endlessly entertaining to my torturers, but all I could see, all I could hear and all that I was at that moment was that light. My sole connection to what I had always been.

"Any last words before you go to hell, darlin'?" Laughed the bastard.

I smiled ever so slightly the last smile I had.

"Lets go." I whispered, leaning towards his voice.

The feel of his blood running from my knife down my arm and the sound of total chaos chased me as I turned and ran blindly towards the faint light that I knew was over the ocean.

The sound chased me through the air, gunshots overwhelming my sense of falling so that it seemed surreal. Sudden pressure, my smile widened as I hit the water. Bound, wounded and hunted, I didn't care. I was in the ocean, do to me what they will.

The impact loosened the dirty rag around my eyes, and now the upward current of my fall lifted it completely. I saw it, heaving in the corner of my weary eyes. The sound carried me to it, hoisted my battered form aboard. That same sound, the exact phrase that they had cursed me with earlier now seemed to my ears praise. That word hung in the air as we distanced from the angry town.

My smile grew as I murmured it myself.

"Pirate."

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Alright, thanks for reading! Hope it was enjoyable, please leave comments if you wish!

Ja matta,

K-chan

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